SPINOZA: A GUIDE FOR

THE PERPLEXED

Continuum Guides for the Perplexed

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Alex Thomson
Deleuze: A Guide for the Perplexed Claire Colebrook
Existentialism: A Guide for the Perplexed
Stephen Earnshaw
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Hobbes: A Guide for the Perplexed
Stephen J. Finn
Husserl: A Guide for the Perplexed Matheson Russell
Kierkegaard: A Guide for the Perplexed
Clare Carlisle
Levinas: A Guide for the Perplexed B. C. Hutchens
Merleau-Ponty: A Guide for the Perplexed
Eric Matthews
Quine: A Guide for the Perplexed Gary Kemp
Rousseau: A Guide for the Perplexed
Matthew Simpson
Sartre: A Guide for the Perplexed Gary Cox
Wittgenstein: A Guide for the Perplexed
Mark Addis

SPINOZA: A GUIDE FOR

THE PERPLEXED
CHARLES E. JARRETT

Continuum International Publishing Group

The Tower Building 80 Maiden Lane
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Charles Jarrett 2007
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitte
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in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without
prior permission in writing from the publishers.
Thanks are due to the following publishers for permission to reprint
portions of Samuel Shirley s translations of Spinoza s works.
Spinoza. Complete Works; translated by Samuel Shirley and others; edited,
with introduction and notes, by Michael L. Morgan.
Copyright 2002 by Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.
Reprinted by permission of Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. All rights
reserved.
Baruch Spinoza. Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, translated by Samuel Shirley.
Copyright 1989 by Koninklijke Brill NV
Reprinted by permission of Koninklijke Brill NV. All rights reserved.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN-10: HB: 0-8264-8595-2
PB: 0-8264-8596-0
ISBN-13: HB: 978-0-8264-8595-3
PB: 978-0-8264-8596-0
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Jarrett, Charles E.
Spinoza : a guide for the perplexed / Charles E. Jarrett
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8264-8595-3
ISBN-10: 0-8264-8595-2
1. Spinoza, Benedictus de, 1632 1677. I. Title.
B3998.J37 2007
193 dc22
2006033963

Typeset by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Manchester

Printed and bound in Great Britain by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall

For Delrie
and for Alex, Amy, and Julie

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CONTENTS
Preface viii
Abbreviations x
Part I. Introduction
1. The Netherlands in the seventeenth century 3
2. Spinoza s life and thought 9
3. The Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect 16
Part II. The Ethics
4. Introduction to the Ethics 31
5. The Ethics, Part I: God 35
6. The Ethics, Part II: Mind and knowledge 61
7. The Ethics, Part III: Emotions 95
8. The Ethics, Part IV: Ethics 119
9. The Ethics, Part V: The mind s power and
blessedness 155
Part III. The political works
10. The Tractatus Theologico-Politicus 177
11. The Tractatus Politicus 190
Postscript: A note on Spinoza s influence 196
Notes 198
Bibliography 210
Index 221
vii

PREFACE
This work is an introduction to Spinoza s philosophy. It is intended
primarily for those with little or no prior knowledge of his philosophy
or even of philosophy itself.
As a Guide for the Perplexed , it is also designed as an aid for
those who have begun to read Spinoza, but who have been unable
to proceed very far. Some of the reasons for this difficulty will be
discussed later in this work, as will the means by which I hope to
dispel it.
Readers who turn to Spinoza s Ethics, but who have very little
background in philosophy, may well be puzzled by unexplained terminology
and references to metaphysics, epistemology, the ontological
argument, or the problem of universals. This work therefore
begins each chapter on the five parts of the Ethics (Chapters 5 9)
with a very brief overview of the subject or topic under consideration.
Each of these chapters also provides an informal statement of
some of Spinoza s main theses, a recommended order of readings,
and a short discussion intended to clarify Spinoza s major claims
and some of his arguments. A brief comparison of Spinoza s views
with those of others and a discussion of disputed issues are also
provided.
Spinoza s two political works
Ethics and my presentation of
different. For each of these,
of Spinoza s main claims, and
issues he raises.

are less highly structured than the

them is correspondingly somewhat
I provide an introduction, a presentation
a short discussion of some of the

I have tried to bring out the major theses and themes of Spinoza s
philosophy without delving unnecessarily into the technical details
of his arguments or proofs. It may be helpful to new readers to point
viii

PREFACE
out that there is general agreement about many of the main elements
of his philosophy. There are also, however, many disagreements
about important doctrines. These include questions concerning
what, precisely, Spinoza s God or substance is, the relations between
the human mind and body, the nature of his ethics, and his doctrine
of the eternity of the intellect.
Like others who have written introductions to Spinoza, I hope
that this work will be of some interest not only to a general audience,
but also to those with a special interest and background in Spinoza,
philosophy, or the history of philosophy generally. For the most
part, however, scholarly debates are avoided. Interpretations that
differ from my own are noted, but only briefly discussed. References
to more advanced scholarly discussions are also provided.1
ix

ABBREVIATIONS
This book generally follows the style of abbreviation used in Yovel
(1999). One exception is that cap is used for the numbered sections
of the Appendix to Part IV of the Ethics.
C Spinoza, Benedictus de (1985), The Collected Works of
Spinoza, vol. 1, ed. and trans. Edwin Curley (Princeton
N.J.: Princeton University Press).
CM Cogitata Metaphysica (Metaphysical Thoughts). This
is the appendix to PPC.
E Ethica (Ethics). E is followed by part number (I V)
and one or more of the following:
App Appendix
ax axiom
c corollary
cap caput (heading in E IV App)
d demonstration
def definition
def.aff. definition of affect (in E III)
exp explanation
gen.def.aff. general definition of affect (in E III)
lem lemma
p proposition
post postulate
Pref Preface
s scholium
Thus, for example, E I p 14c2 refers to the second corollary to
proposition 14 of the first part of the Ethics, and E II p 10cs to the
x

ABBREVIATIONS
scholium following the corollary of II p 10. A comma indicates
and . Thus E IV p 1,d refers to proposition 1 and its demonstration
in Part IV.
Ep Epistolae (Letters). These are numbered as in Spinoza
(2002).
G Gebhardt, Carl (ed), Spinoza Opera (Heidelberg: Carl
Winters Universitaetsbuchhandlung, 1925) G is followed
by volume (I IV), page, and line number. Thus
G II. 10. 8 16 refers to Volume II, page 10, lines 8 16.
KV Korte Verhandeling van God, de Mensch en deszelvs
Welstand (Short Treatise on God, Man, and his WellBeing). KV is followed by part number (I or II),
chapter number, and section number (1, 2, etc.). Thus
KV I. 6.3 refers to Part I, chapter 6, section 3.
M Mignini, Filipo (ed. and trans.), Benedictus de Spinoza:
Breve trattato su Dio, l uomo e il suo bene (L Aquila:
L. U. Japadre, 1986).
PPC Principia Philosophiae Cartesianae (Principles of
Cartesian Philosophy), that is, Renati Des Cartes
Principiorum Philosophiae Pars I & II (Parts I and II of
Ren Descartes Principles of Philosophy). PPC is followed
by part number (I, II, or III) and proposition,
etc., as in E.
S Spinoza, Benedictus de (2002), Spinoza: Complete
Works, ed. Michael L. Morgan, trans. Samuel Shirley
(Indianapolis and Cambridge: Hackett Publishing
Company).
TdIE Tractatus de Intellectus Emendatione (Treatise on the
Emendation of the Intellect).
TP Tractatus Politicus (Political Treatise).
TTP Tractatus Theologico-Politicus (Theologico-Political
Treatise).
xi

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PART I
INTRODUCTION

This page intentionally left blank

CHAPTER 1
THE NETHERLANDS IN THE SEVENTEENTH
CENTURY
ORIGIN OF THE NETHERLANDS
The modern state of The Netherlands arose from the union of seven
of the 17 provinces that Philip II of Spain inherited in 1555 from his
father, Charles V.1 The Eighty Years War against Spain, which was
actually a series of three different revolts,2 began in 1568 and in 1579
the seven northern provinces formed the Union of Utrecht. This was
an agreement to act as one, at least in matters of war and peace .3
In 1581 they adopted the Act of Abjuration, their declaration of
independence from Spain.4 These provinces achieved official independence
in 1648 with the Treaty of Mnster, although de facto
independence dates from 1609.5
The seven northern provinces were Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht,
Gelderland, Overijssel, Friesland, and Groningen.6 They became
what is now known as The Netherlands, while the southern
provinces are now mainly Belgium and Luxembourg.
GOVERNMENT
Each of the seven provinces had its own governing assembly and
each had one vote in the States General, the governing body of the
republic.7 There was also a stadholder, or governor, for each province
as well as for the provinces as a whole. From 1572 to 1795, the States
Stadholder was nearly always the Prince of Orange, including
Frederick Hendrik and William I through William V.8
The provinces were largely self-governed, however, and The
Netherlands itself was a loose confederation, with a relatively weak
central government.9 Holland was the wealthiest and politically
3

INTRODUCTION
most powerful of the provinces and its head of state, the Grand
Pensionary Jan de Witt, was the effective ruler of The Netherlands
from 1650 to 1672.10
RELIGION
Catholicism in Western Europe had a monopoly on religious orthodoxy
until the Protestant Reformation. This was initiated by Martin
Luther (1483 1546) when he posted his 95 theses on the Wittenberg
church door in 1517. Although Luther s primary complaint concerned
the sale of indulgences, it eventually led to the establishment
of a new orthodoxy, Lutheranism. Another reformer, John Calvin
(1509 1564), agreed with Luther that priests may marry, gained
political control of Geneva, and established a new Protestant religion,
Calvinism. This teaches that the Bible alone has religious
authority, that is, it contains everything needed for knowledge of
God and of our duties to God and our neighbours. In addition, it
holds that good acts can be done only with the grace of God. It also
holds that everything which happens is divinely predestined.
The northern provinces became officially Calvinist,11 despite the
large number of Catholics within their borders,12 while the south
remained Catholic.
Religious tolerance was selective and it was extended, sometimes,
to Jews, but not to Catholics, Arminians (Remonstrants), or others.
An interesting story about this is recounted by Nadler.13 In the late
sixteenth or early seventeenth century, the authorities in Amsterdam
investigated a report of a strange language being used in a nearby
house. They investigated, took the occupants of the house to be
Catholics praying in Latin, and arrested them. When informed that
the occupants were Jews who were praying in Hebrew, the authorities
released them. Indeed, they gave the Jews permission to set up a
congregation. Permission to build a synagogue, however, was evidently
refused in 1612.14
POLITICS
The major political division was between Orangists, who favoured a
strong central government with a powerful sovereign from the House
of Orange, and the republicans, who advocated local control and
true freedom .15 Members of the Reformed Church, the Calvinists,
4

THE NETHERLANDS IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

were in the former camp, while Spinoza, his friends, and Jan de Witt
were in the latter. Tolerance of others, freedom of speech, and
freedom to practise one s own religion were major issues in dispute.
1672 was the annus horribilis, or disaster year , for The
Netherlands. The French and the English attacked in concert, the
stock market crashed, the art market collapsed, and there was
rioting in the streets.16 On 4 August, Jan de Witt resigned as Grand
Pensionary and on 20 August, a mob got hold of him and his
brother. They were beaten, stabbed, and shot to death 17 and then
hung upside down and mutilated. Parts of their bodies were cooked
and eaten.18
When Spinoza learned of the killings, he told Leibniz that he
planned to go outside and post a notice at the site which read ultimi
barbarorum (greatest of barbarians). His landlord, however, locked
him in the house to prevent his being torn to pieces .19 As Nadler
relates, Spinoza was linked to de Witt and a 1672 pamphlet proclaims
that de Witt basically gave Spinoza the protection he needed
to publish the Theologico-Political Treatise .20
In the end, the French gained little, the English fleet was defeated,
and William III s defence of the republic resulted in increased prestige
and power for himself and the Orangists.21 In 1689, following
the Glorious Revolution , he became King of England and co-ruler
with Queen Mary II, thus replacing her father, James II.
THE DUTCH GOLDEN AGE
The seventeenth century, or most of it, is also known as the Dutch
Golden Age. It was a period during which Dutch naval power
became dominant and, not coincidentally, its economy became the
strongest in Europe.22 The Dutch East Indies Company gained
control of trade in Taiwan and Japan, as well as parts of South-east
Asia and Eastern Africa, and it established a settlement, initially for
refuelling , at the Cape of Good Hope.23 The Dutch West Indies
Company established settlements in North and South America, as
well as in the Caribbean. These companies had warships and an
army, not merely merchant ships, and they committed mass
murder24 in their effort to control trade. They were major participants
in the slave trade.25
Dutch art and architecture experienced its golden age as well,
starting in the 1590s.26 Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn
5

INTRODUCTION
(1606 1669) and Johannes Vermeer (1632 1675) are now, surely, the
best known among the many Dutch painters of the time.27
Rembrandt, incidentally, lived for a while around the corner from
Spinoza ,28 although there is no evidence that they knew each other
more than in passing.29
SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE
Aristotelianism was the dominant philosophy taught in the universities
both during and well before the time of Spinoza and Descartes.
(Descartes died in 1650, when Spinoza was 17.) Descartes, in fact,
went to the Jesuit school at La Flche in France, where he was no
doubt strongly influenced by the work of Francisco Surez
(1548 1617), the principal theorist of the Jesuits. Surez was the last
in a long line of eminent theologians and philosophers that includes
Thomas Aquinas (1225 1274), Duns Scotus (1266 1308), and
William of Ockham (1285 1347). His Disputationes Metaphysicae
(1597) is an admirably comprehensive and detailed work on metaphysics
and on Aristotle.
Aquinas had combined a primarily Aristotelian philosophical
framework with Catholicism in the thirteenth century, comparable
to Augustine s synthesis of Plato and Christian doctrine in the
fourth and fifth centuries.
The Aristotelian and indeed Christian worldview promulgated a
cosmology, or theory of the structure of the universe, that we call
Ptolemaic . It was set out in perhaps its most refined form in the
Almagest by Claudius Ptolemy (c. 90 c. 168), although Aristotle had
advanced it in the fourth century bc. It is said to be a geocentric
conception because it holds that the earth is the centre of the universe
and the sun, moon, and planets revolve around it. The
Aristotelian worldview also regards natural phenomena as having
both efficient and final causes. Everything, that is, is due to an
antecedent cause as we ordinarily understand it and everything is
also for something in the sense that it has a purpose or goal.
The Ptolemaic view was challenged by Nicholaus Copernicus
(1473 1543) in his book On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres,
published in the year of his death. This maintained, or suggested, that
the sun is the centre of the universe and that the planets, including the
earth, revolve around the sun. This heliocentric or sun-centred conception
was later advocated by Galileo in his Dialogue and by
6

THE NETHERLANDS IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

Descartes in Le monde. Galileo (1564 1642) published his work and
got into trouble with the Inquisition because of it. Descartes, on
hearing about this, decided against publication of his own treatise.
Descartes later works were not well received by the Dutch authorities.
Indeed, the teaching of Cartesianism was prohibited in the
universities.
A short list of some of the other most famous natural philosophers
or scientists of the age includes the following:
1. Johannes Kepler (1571 1630), astronomer and astrologer, who
formulated three laws of planetary motion.
2. Robert Boyle (1627 1691), perhaps the first modern chemist.
Spinoza corresponded indirectly with him, through Henry
Oldenburg, secretary of the Royal Society. Oldenburg sent Boyle s
book to Spinoza and Spinoza sent back some criticisms. A short
exchange followed, always mediated by Oldenburg.
3. Christian Huygens (1629 1695), physicist and mathematician.
Spinoza made some lenses for him.
4. Anton van Leeuwenhoek (1632 1723), the father of microbiology .
He was born in the same year as Spinoza, in Delft.
5. Isaac Newton (1643 1727), or the incomparable Mr. Newton ,
as John Locke put it in his Essay. He produced a unified theory that
accounts for both terrestrial and celestial motion and was the coinventor, with Leibniz, of the calculus. The question of priority has
long been controversial.
6. Gottfried Leibniz (1646 1716), physicist, philosopher, and
mathematician. He once met and conversed with Spinoza and he
corresponded with Spinoza about optics. Spinoza was quite reluctant
to allow him to see a manuscript of the Ethics.
Extraordinary advances in mathematics were also made in the
seventeenth century. Descartes invented analytic geometry, while
Leibniz and Newton, as just noted, created the calculus. Other notables
in this field include Pierre de Fermat (1601 1665), Blaise Pascal
(1623 1662), and Christian Huygens. Lesser known but still notable
are John Hudde (1633 1704) and Ehrenfried Walther von
Tschirnhaus (1651 1708). Spinoza corresponded with both of them
as well as with Huygens.
Several scientific societies were established in the seventeenth
century. In England, the Royal Society was founded in 1660 and
7

INTRODUCTION
granted a charter to publish by King Charles II in 1662.30 Oldenburg
was its first secretary and he was an extremely active correspondent
with others throughout Europe. Other scientific societies that were
formed in the seventeenth century include the French Acadmie des
sciences, the German Leopoldinische Carolinisch Akademie der
Naturforscher, and the Italian Accademia dei Lincei (Academy of
the Lynxes).
8

CHAPTER 2
SPINOZA S LIFE AND THOUGHT
SPINOZA S LIFE
Family and early life
Spinoza was born in the Jewish quarter of Amsterdam on 24
November 1632. His parents were Sephardic Jews, that is, descendants
of Jews who in the Middle Ages lived on the Iberian peninsula
(primarily Spain and Portugal). At the time of Spinoza s birth, the
Sephardic community in Amsterdam was relatively well established,
while the Ashkenazi Jews were more recent, and poorer, immigrants.
1
Spinoza s mother was Hanna Deborah Senior and it is apparently
from her father, Baruch Senior, that Spinoza received his Hebrew
name.2 Baruch means blessed and is Benedictus in Latin. At
home and within the Portuguese community he was called Bento ,
which is Portuguese for blessed .
His father was Michael d Espinoza (also Miguel d Espinosa ),
who was born in Vidigere, Portugal in 1587 or 1588.3 Spinoza s
paternal grandfather, Isaac, had left Portugal with Michael to escape
the Portuguese Inquisition. In 1497 Jewish children in Portugal were
forced to convert to Catholicism and in 1547 the Pope established a
free and unimpeded Inquisition in Portugal.4 Members of the
Espinosa family, like many others, had been imprisoned and tortured
in Portugal.5
Aside from Spinoza s mother and father, his immediate family, at
his birth, included an older sister, Miriam (born 1629) and an older
brother, Isaac (born between 1630 and 1632).6 A younger brother,
Abraham (also known as Gabriel), was born between 1634 and
1638.7 Finally, he also had a sister or half-sister, Rebecca. It is
9

INTRODUCTION
unclear, according to Nadler, whether her mother was Hanna
(Michael s second wife) or Esther (Michael s third wife).8 Rebecca
moved to Curaao between 1679 and 1685 and she and one of her
sons died there in a yellow fever epidemic in 1695.9
Spinoza s father was a fairly successful merchant, who imported a
variety of goods such as citrus fruits, raisins, and oil.10 He was also
active in the leadership of the community.
Spinoza went to the local school, run by the Talmud Torah congregation.
This had six levels or grades, the two highest of which
were mainly for rabbinical training. Spinoza seems to have attended
only the first four, after which, at around age 14, he apparently
worked in his father s business,11 which he later ran with his brother,
Gabriel.
The years from 1649 through 1654 must have been difficult.
Spinoza s older brother died in 1649 and this was followed by the
death of his older sister Miriam in 1651, of his stepmother Esther in
1652, and of his father in 1654.
In perhaps 1654 or 1655,12 and maybe as early as 1652,13 Spinoza
began to attend a private school set up by Franciscus van den Enden.
There Spinoza studied Latin, as well as Descartes philosophy, and
he participated with others at the school in the production of
various plays. Klever holds, on the basis of new documents that he
and Bedjai independently discovered, that van den Enden is a
proto-Spinoza; the genius behind Spinoza .14
There is also a story about van den Enden s daughter, Clara Maria.
Colerus portrays Spinoza as being in love with her and wanting to
marry her, but many commentators are sceptical. Nadler is among
them and he notes that if this is supposed to relate how Spinoza felt
in 1657, Spinoza would have been 25 and Clara Maria 13.15 Colerus
also says that another student, Keckkering, was jealous. Keckkering
was 18 at the time and in fact married Clara Maria in 1671.16
Van den Enden moved to Paris in 1670. He was charged with plotting
to assassinate Louis XIV and was hanged in 1674. One of his
alleged co-conspirators was beheaded and the other was shot while
resisting arrest.17
Spinoza was excommunicated by the Amsterdam synagogue on
27 July 1656. The complete explanation of this is still debated. There
is no doubt, however, that at least a central part of the reason for it
was Spinoza s heretical views. According to Lucas, Spinoza had
revealed some of his views and attitudes to others and they then
10

SPINOZA S LIFE AND THOUGHT

reported him to the authorities of the congregation.18 These views
included rejection of the orthodox conception of God as a lawgiver
and of the Jews as a chosen people.19 In 1659 a report was made to
the Spanish Inquisition concerning Spinoza and Juan de Prado, who
had also been excommunicated. They were reported to have said that
they had been excommunicated because of their views on God, the
soul, and the law .20
After his excommunication, Spinoza stayed in Amsterdam, probably
at van den Enden s, but he may instead have lived in Leiden. He
studied at Leiden , according to the Inquisition report.21 He may
have helped in teaching at van den Enden s school and he participated
in 1657/58 in various plays.22 He may also have translated
Margaret Fell Fox s A Loving Salutation to the Seed of Abraham
among the Jewes and one of her letters from Dutch into Hebrew.23
Spinoza s closest friends or intimate circle , as Wolf puts it, were
not numerous.24 Simon Joosten de Vries (1633? 1667) was a merchant
who at his death left Spinoza an annuity, only part of which
Spinoza accepted. Lodewijk Meyer (1630 1681) received both a
Ph.D. and an M.D. in 1660 from the University of Leiden. He
became the director of the Amsterdam Theatre, founded a society of
arts, and was an author himself. Another author was Pieter Balling,
an agent for merchants. Jarig Jelles (d. 1683) was a merchant, but
hired a business manager to devote himself to the pursuit of knowledge .
25 Finally, there were Johan Bouwmeester (1630 1680) and
Georg Hermann Schuller (1651 1679). Both were doctors and it was
the latter, apparently, who attended Spinoza during his last illness
and was present at Spinoza s death.
Rijnsburg
Spinoza moved to Rijnsburg, which is near Leiden, in the summer
of 1661. The earliest piece of his correspondence that we have is a
letter from Oldenburg, dated 26 August 1661. It is from this letter
that we learn that earlier in the summer Oldenburg visited Spinoza
and conversed with him about philosophy.
While in Rijnsburg Spinoza dictated to a student the first part of
what would become the Principles of Cartesian Philosophy (PPC).
The house in which he rented a room still stands and is preserved by
Het Spinozhous Vereniging (the Spinoza House Association).26 They
have reconstructed his library and have set up his room, which is rather
11

INTRODUCTION
large, as it was when Spinoza lived there. It is on the ground floor, to
the right of the entrance to the house, and it has direct access to the
back yard. Among the furnishings is a lens-grinding instrument.
Voorburg
Spinoza moved to Voorburg, which is close to The Hague, probably
in April of 1663.27 There he continued work on what would become
the Ethics. He also finished composing the Principles of Cartesian
Philosophy and an appendix to it, the Metaphysical Thoughts (CM),
which his friends encouraged him to publish. It appeared in 1663,
published in Amsterdam by Jan (Johannes) Rieuwertsz.
In 1665 Spinoza began work on the Theologico-Political Treatise
(TTP).
The Hague
Spinoza s final move was to The Hague, probably in 1669 or 1670,
where he again rented a room, first in one house and then, about a
year later, in another.28
In 1670 he published the Theologico-Political Treatise, which was
immediately attacked and condemned as godless and blasphemous.
29
In 1673 Spinoza was offered, but declined, the chair of philosophy
at the University of Heidelberg. He accepted, however, an invitation
to visit the military headquarters of the Prince of Cond,
whose French forces had invaded The Netherlands. The prince was
not there, however, and although Spinoza stayed for a while, his
mission remains a mystery.30
As we learn from Ep 68, Spinoza had the Ethics ready for publication
in 1675, but because rumours got out that he was going to
publish an atheistic work, he decided to wait. He began work on the
Political Treatise (TP), which he did not finish.
Spinoza became ill about a week before his death and he died on
21 February 1677. The cause of his death was evidently phthisis
(tubercular and/or fibrous). He may also have had silicosis as a result
of grinding lenses for many years.31
His papers were sent to Rieuwertsz in Amsterdam, edited by his
friends, and published in 1677 as his Opera Posthuma, in Latin, and
Nagelate Schriften, in Dutch.32 The Opera Posthuma contains his
12

SPINOZA S LIFE AND THOUGHT

Ethics, an edited selection of his correspondence, and three incomplete
works: the Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect, the
Political Treatise, and the Grammar of the Hebrew Language. The
Nagelate Schriften contains all of these except the last.
Brief chronology
1632 24 Nov. Birth of Spinoza in Amsterdam
1638 Death of Spinoza s mother, Hanna Deborah Senior
1652? Spinoza begins to attend van den Enden s school
1654 Death of Spinoza s father, Michael d Espinosa
1654 56? Spinoza runs his father s business with Gabriel
1656 27 July Excommunication by Amsterdam synagogue
1656 61 Spinoza remains in Amsterdam33
1661 Spinoza moves to Rijnsburg, where Oldenburg
visits him. He works on the Principles of Cartesian
Philosophy, the Metaphysical Thoughts, and the
Ethics
1663
Publication of the Principles of Cartesian Philosophy
and its appendix, the Metaphysical Thoughts.
Spinoza moves to Voorburg, near The Hague
1665
Spinoza begins work on the Theologico-Political
Treatise
1669 or 1670 Spinoza moves to The Hague
1670 Publication of the Theologico-Political Treatise
1673 Spinoza goes to Utrecht (a diplomatic mission?). He
declines the chair of philosophy at Heidelberg
1675 Spinoza considers publication of the Ethics and
begins the Political Treatise
1676 Leibniz visits Spinoza
1677 21 Feb. Death of Spinoza in The Hague
1677 Publication of the Opera Posthuma and the Nagelate
Schriften
THE CHARACTER OF SPINOZA S THOUGHT: PHILOSOPHY, SCIENCE,
AND THEOLOGY
Spinoza s thought deals with nearly every major issue and field in
philosophy. It addresses central issues in metaphysics, philosophy of
mind, the theory of knowledge, ethics, and political philosophy. It
13

INTRODUCTION
also provides a cosmology, a psychology, and at least a partial
physics. Although we now regard the former subjects as parts of philosophy
and the latter as parts of science, he recognizes no sharp
division between them.34
In this he is like other thinkers of the seventeenth century, who do
not think of philosophy, or at least natural philosophy , as distinct
from the various sciences. Descartes, for example, explicitly maintains
that philosophy encompasses everything we can know.35
Newton s main work is entitled Mathematical Principles of Natural
Philosophy.36 We, in contrast, regard it as one of the greatest foundational
works in science.
Perhaps this should be expected. For modern science originated
partly in the sixteenth and primarily in the seventeenth centuries. It
arose with the work of Copernicus, Tycho Brahe (1546 1601),
Kepler, Galileo, Descartes, Leibniz, Newton, Huygens, Boyle,
Leeuwenhoek, and many others. It was a revolution in thought and
the revolutionaries had just begun to create the modern sciences of
cosmology and astronomy, physics, chemistry, and biology.
A third field, however, is also prominent in Spinoza s thought. It is
theology, taken in its most basic sense as an account, or as knowledge,
of God. Spinoza s philosophy thus seems to us a curious mixture not
just of two fields, but of three: philosophy, science, and theology.
But in this, too, Spinoza is not unique. Both Plato and Aristotle
invoke a concept of the divine to account for features of the physical
world. Plato s Demiurge arranges the heavens for the best and
Aristotle s unmoved mover, or movers, accounts for motion. In addition,
Descartes himself holds that all knowledge depends on knowledge
of God. Indeed, he attempts to derive a principle of the
conservation of the total quantity of motion from the constancy of
God s will. Newton, in turn, takes space and time to be God s sensorium
and appeals solely to God to account for the paths of
comets, or at least to explain why, as he thinks, the comets do not
collide with the planets.
This apparent failure to distinguish philosophy, science, and theology
seems quite odd to us, but it is a reflection of the attempt to
provide a unitary, reasoned, and comprehensive account of the
world, including ourselves.
It seems odd to us partly because we are so accustomed to the
specialization and division of labour that has arisen since the
seventeenth century. Astrophysics, quantum physics, evolutionary
14

SPINOZA S LIFE AND THOUGHT

biology, and organic chemistry, to name just a few, are highly specialized
fields of scientific enquiry, as are philosophy of mind, ethics,
and philosophical logic, in philosophy. Theology, in turn, has its
subfields as well and the Renaissance person who combines them
all seems an ideal of the past. Graduate training in a moderate
number of these fields would normally take a lifetime.
Questions about the nature of philosophy, of science, and of theology,
and of their relations to each other, are matters of deep disagreement
and I will not try to settle the issues here. My own view,
however, is that philosophy, if it does nothing else, raises and
attempts to answer the big questions about ourselves and the universe.
It is a systematic and reasoned attempt to understand the
world, including ourselves. This makes it a theoretical enterprise and
continuous, at least in part, with modern science.
Its aim, however, is not just to understand. The quest for knowledge
has usually, and quite rightly, been conjoined with the conviction
that while knowledge is intrinsically valuable, it is useful as well.
Reason , as Spinoza and many others have held, has both theoretical
and practical aims.
15

CHAPTER 3
THE TREATISE ON THE EMENDATION OF THE
INTELLECT
INTRODUCTION
A natural starting point for a consideration of Spinoza s philosophy is
his early work, the Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect (TdIE).1
Its full title is Treatise on the Emendation of the Intellect and on the Way
by which it is Best Directed to the True Knowledge of Things.2 As this
indicates, one of its primary concerns is with philosophical method.
However, its first 30 sections, out of 110,3 are devoted primarily to a
discussion of value and of a change in Spinoza s plan of life. Here
Spinoza sets out his conception of the highest good and in the course
of this he explains why the subject of the treatise, the emendation or
improvement of the intellect, is important.
This part of TdIE may be outlined as follows:
1 11 The change in Spinoza s plan of life
12 13 The true good and the highest good
14 16 The general means by which to attain the highest good
17 Provisional rules of life (to be accepted while pursuing the
true good)
18 24 The four kinds of knowledge or perception
25 30 The means to the highest good
THE CHANGE IN SPINOZA S PLAN OF LIFE (1 11)
The Treatise begins with an extraordinary sentence:
After experience had taught me that all the things which regularly
occur in ordinary life are empty and futile, and I saw that all the
16

TREATISE ON THE EMENDATION OF THE INTELLECT

things which were the cause or object of my fear had nothing of
good or bad in themselves, except insofar as [my] mind was
moved by them, I resolved at last to try to find out whether there
was anything which would be the true good, capable of communicating
itself, and which alone would affect the mind, all others
being rejected
whether there was something which, once found
and acquired, would continuously give me the greatest joy, to
eternity.4
Spinoza s philosophy is thus motivated by the search for the true
good or, as he later characterizes it, the highest good.
As his first sentence indicates, this is not something that is good
in itself , or good independently of its effects on us. Indeed, Spinoza
holds that nothing is good or bad in itself. Instead, he maintains that
things are good only insofar as they affect the soul with joy and they
are bad only insofar as they affect the soul with negative (unpleasant)
emotions.
Spinoza s subsequent discussion (through 11) contains an
account of his struggle to devise and even think about a new goal
as well as to free himself from the pursuit of ordinary goods. In
the course of this discussion, he criticizes these ordinary pursuits
and he also considers the question of the attainability of his new
goal.
THE TRUE GOOD AND THE HIGHEST GOOD (12 16)
12 13. 11 ends Spinoza s autobiographical or historical
account of his thoughts. 12 16 set out his conception of a true
good and the highest good, but first he makes some preliminary
remarks.
These prefatory remarks and Spinoza s initial identification of the
supreme good are as follows:
good and bad are said of things only in a certain respect, so that
one and the same thing can be called both good and bad according
to different respects. The same applies to perfect and imperfect.
For nothing, considered in its own nature, will be called
perfect or imperfect, especially after we have recognized that
everything that happens happens according to the eternal order,
and according to certain laws of nature.
17

INTRODUCTION
But since human weakness does not grasp that order by its
own thought, and meanwhile man conceives a human nature
much stronger and more enduring than his own, and at the same
time sees that nothing prevents his acquiring such a nature, he
is spurred to seek the means that will lead him to such perfection.
Whatever can be a means to his attaining it is called a true
good, but the highest good is to arrive
together with other
individuals if possible at the enjoyment of such a nature. What
that nature is we shall show in its proper place: that it is the
knowledge of the union that the mind has with the whole of
nature.5
Spinoza here expresses a view that is now sometimes called antiobjectivist
or anti-realist . The idea is that things as they are in
themselves are neither good nor bad, nor are they perfect or imperfect.
To maintain that nothing, considered in its own nature , is
good or bad can also be expressed by saying that being good and
being bad are not real properties of things. Nevertheless, he holds,
we can construct an idea of a stronger human nature , and can legitimately
call a thing good or a true good , insofar as it is a means
of attaining such a nature. Such a view can also be called constructivist ,
insofar as it requires construction of an ideal with reference
to which things are to be evaluated as good or bad.
Spinoza s position is set out quite briefly here, but it is reiterated
and characterized more completely in both the Ethics and the Short
Treatise on God, Man, and his Well-Being (KV). We will consider it
further when we turn to the Ethics.
Another remarkable feature of Spinoza s thought about ethics is
also found in this passage. For Spinoza claims or suggests that
ethics rests, in part, on ignorance. Our failure to understand the
order of nature, that is, our human weakness (humana imbecillitas),
is apparently cited as a precondition either of our constructing
an ideal (or exemplar as he puts it in the Ethics6), or of seeing
no reason why we cannot attain it, or of both. That we are ignorant
of the causal order of nature is stressed by Spinoza in several
places.7
14 15. The means by which the highest good is to be attained
are enumerated in 14 and 15. They include: (1) understanding as
much of nature as is required; (2) establishing a social order to allow
as many as possible to attain the supreme good; (3) the development
18

TREATISE ON THE EMENDATION OF THE INTELLECT

of moral philosophy and the education of children; and (4) medicine
and (5) mechanics (to save time and effort).
This seems to be the outline of a programme. Spinoza s Ethics
contributes primarily to (1) and to the development of moral
philosophy, specified in (3). His political works seem to provide a
necessary preliminary to (2).
16. Most important, however, is the development of a method
for emending or healing (medendi) the intellect and for purifying it.
Thus all sciences are to be directed to one goal, the attainment of the
highest human perfection , and whatever does not advance this is to
be rejected as useless.
PROVISIONAL RULES OF LIFE AND KINDS OF KNOWLEDGE (17)
17. Spinoza here sets out provisional rules for living (vivendi
regulae). These include: (1) speak to the understanding of the multitude
(ad captum vulgi loqui); (2) indulge in pleasures only to the
extent that they promote health; and (3) seek money only insofar as
it is necessary for life and health and for following the customs of
society (when they do not conflict with his overall aim).
THE FOUR KINDS OF KNOWLEDGE OR PERCEPTION (18 24)
18 24. These sections provide a survey of kinds of knowledge
( perception ) that we have. These are: (1) from hearsay or conventional
signs; (2) from casual experience; (3) when we inadequately
infer the essence of one thing from another thing; and (4) when a
thing is perceived through its essence alone, or through knowledge
of its proximate cause .8
THE MEANS TO THE HIGHEST GOOD (25 30)
25. Spinoza recounts what is necessary for his goal. This consists
generally in the knowledge necessary for determining the extent to
which we can change things, and This done, the highest perfection
man can reach will easily manifest itself .9
26 30. What kind of knowledge should we choose? After
discussing each kind, he answers in 29 that it is mainly the fourth
kind. 30 indicates that the remainder of the work will determine the
method for obtaining this kind of knowledge.
19

INTRODUCTION
SOME ISSUES
The substantive issues raised by Spinoza s discussion in the first 30
sections of TdIE are large and important. A few of these will be considered
here, but I should stress at the outset the preliminary nature
of my remarks at this point. My aim is to help provide a better
understanding of Spinoza s ethics and the issues it raises.
Reasoning about ultimate ends
Spinoza clearly supposes that it is possible to reason about ultimate
goals and he seems, furthermore, to be right about this. For this is an
essential part of the attempt, which at least some of us sometimes
make, to devise a life plan.10
Hedonistic criteria
In evaluating ultimate ends, Spinoza makes important use of hedonistic
criteria. Indeed, the first sentence of TdIE suggests that a thing
is good only insofar as it affects the soul with joy (laetitia) and bad
insofar as it affects us with sadness (tristitia).11
Traditional hedonistic criteria include, for example, the quality,
duration, and purity of the pleasures compared.12 Other things
being equal, if one activity produces a higher degree of pleasure
than another (that is, if it feels better), then that is to be preferred.
Similarly, longer-lasting pleasures are to be preferred to shorter ones
and a pleasure that is unmixed with pain is to be preferred to one
that gives rise to pain.
In the first sentence of TdIE, Spinoza characterizes a true good as
one that produces the greatest joy, to eternity . So no other joy will
last longer or be of greater quality. His criticism of the pursuit of
sensual pleasures is that it necessarily produces the greatest sadness,
and the pursuit of wealth and honour can do the same. (It will do so
if we are unsuccessful.) Finally, our happiness depends on the
quality of what we love. The love of changeable things gives rise to
strife, sadness, envy, fear, hatred, or other disturbances of the mind
(commotiones animi). But love toward the eternal and infinite thing
feeds the mind with a joy entirely exempt from sadness. 13
But while Spinoza s criticisms of the pursuit of wealth, honour,
and sensual pleasure are largely hedonistic, it is not obvious that
20

TREATISE ON THE EMENDATION OF THE INTELLECT

they are exclusively so. For all three engross or distract the mind
and prevent it from thinking of a new good (3 5). Even this,
however, can be regarded as employing a hedonistic criterion,
insofar as it assumes that some new and better good could or would
be found if the mind were not so distracted.
Alternative descriptions
We see from the descriptions given above that Spinoza characterizes
his primary goal (or the highest good) in a variety of ways. A
summary of these characterizations is as follows:
1 supreme and continuous joy to eternity
2 the greatest happiness
9 10 love toward the eternal and infinite thing (or the happiness
or joy that arises from this)
13 a human nature much stronger (and more enduring) than
his own
13 knowledge of the union of the mind with the whole of nature
14 happiness
16 the highest human perfection
25 the highest perfection that man can attain
In TdIE Spinoza says very little about what each of these is. In a
note to his identification of the ultimate goal as knowledge of the
union of the mind with the whole of nature, he remarks, These are
explained more fully in their proper place. 14 The proper place, for
this at least, turns out to be KV, not the Ethics. Nor does he say very
much about happiness, except quite generally. It depends on the
quality of what we love. For if the object can change and be
destroyed, great sadness, quarrels, etc. can arise from this love; if,
instead, the object is something unchangeable, then unmixed joy will
arise. But Spinoza does not specify what happiness or even a
stronger human nature is in any detail. More complete discussions
of these, however, will be found in KV and in the Ethics.
Relations among descriptions
Spinoza does not provide an extensive discussion in TdIE of the relations
among supreme and continuous joy to eternity , happiness ,
21

INTRODUCTION
human perfection , a stronger (and more enduring) human nature ,
and knowledge of the union of the mind with the whole of nature .
In 13, however, he does identify a stronger (and more enduring)
human nature with knowledge of the union of the mind with the
whole of nature , and he characterizes this as our perfection. As we
have also seen, he seems to suppose, in 2, 9 10, and 14, that what
he seeks is happiness (or the highest happiness, according to 2) and
he indicates that this depends on love of the eternal, which feeds the
mind with a joy entirely exempt from sadness . In 14 Spinoza also
apparently equates his own happiness with his attainment of a
stronger and more lasting human nature. Thus Spinoza apparently
takes all of these descriptions to be equivalent.
Attainability
The question of the attainability of our goal is a large one, which we
have considered very briefly in our remarks on 12 13 above. For
Spinoza seems to suppose there, quite naturally, that we construct or
pursue a goal when, and perhaps only when, we do not see anything
that prevents our attaining it. Ignorance of the causal order of
nature thus appears to be a necessary presupposition of ethics. That
our goal should be possible for us that is, not ruled out by what we
know is also indicated when Spinoza maintains in 13 that it is a
stronger human nature that we seek. For he holds that individuals
cannot persist through changes in their species.15
We have also seen that Spinoza provides several different descriptions
of his ultimate goal and, indeed, he sometimes leaves open
what precisely the highest goal is. In 25, for example, he indicates
that what the goal is will become apparent after we come to know
the extent of our power over natural things.16 The question thus
arises whether we can, or should, specify our highest goal independently
of its attainability.
In the Ethics, we might add, Spinoza s ideal is one of complete
self-determination.17 This, however, would require that we not be
parts of nature, or that we be unaffected by anything outside of ourselves,
and Spinoza himself recognizes that this is impossible.18 But
he also holds that blessedness can be achieved.
Of course, if we think on our own about the construction of an
ideal, we might well say about some alleged ideal that it is to be
rejected, as an ideal to be seriously pursued, precisely because it is
22

TREATISE ON THE EMENDATION OF THE INTELLECT

not realistic or attainable. This is a familiar objection to utopian
schemes, for example.
An equally standard reply is to say that it may not be attainable,
but it can still define what is better and worse. So even if it is not fully
attainable, it is valuable even to move toward it.
It is perhaps tempting to suppose this to be a successful defence
only for certain types of goals (or goal-specifications). These are
goals whose attainment admits of degree, such as being happier,
wiser, or richer. If, in contrast, the goal is to be happy, wise, or rich,
then however difficult it may be to define these precisely, one either
succeeds or doesn t.
Even with a goal that is all-or-nothing, however, it can be replied
that if one can approach them more or less closely, then even these
notions can be used to specify a viable non-utopian aim. Thus if one
can be said to be closer to or further from attainment of the goal,
then the goal might still be a useful (or rather viable or reasonable )
one to propose, even if attainment of it is impossible.
Some of Spinoza s goal-characterizations in TdIE seem to be allornothing, while others seem to admit of degree. Knowledge of the
union of the mind with the whole of nature sounds like one item of
knowledge that one either does or doesn t have.19 So, too, the attainment
of supreme and continual joy to eternity seems to be an allornothing affair, as does love of the eternal and infinite thing . But
love admits of degree or quantity; the question can always be raised
about how much of it you have. A stronger human nature is like this
as well; for after you have achieved it, we can ask how much stronger
you have become and we can always seek to become even stronger.
Compare this with the endeavour to preserve yourself for an indefinite
period of time.
Another question concerns a subclass of goals that are fully
attainable. Consider a goal that is all-or-nothing, does not admit of
degree, and does not consist in continuous activity. If this is the
supreme good, the ideal perfection for which we strive, or our
highest goal, the question is simply this. Suppose this goal to have
been attained. Then what?
Consider a goal such a winning a gold medal at the Olympic
games, marrying a certain person, or attaining a net worth of a
billion dollars. What is one to do if
or after such a goal is attained?
The same question arises when, like the Buddha or the Platonist
within sight of the Good, your highest goal has been achieved, but you
23

INTRODUCTION
are still alive. Are you simply to remain in an enlightened state as long
as you can or are you to teach and help others, rule the state, or, for that
matter, engage in farming or fishing? Although these alternatives may
not be exclusive, it has often enough been thought that they are
that
continued contemplation or the vision itself is the ideal state. If so, then
the goal is not only to attain perfection. It is not just to become perfect
or enlightened, but to become and remain so indefinitely.
Spinoza insists in KV that we must always achieve more and in the
Ethics that while the goal of complete self-determination is strictly
speaking impossible to attain, it is a model by reference to which we
make assessments. So it seems that there is, or can be, an advantage
to setting out an ideal that cannot be fully attained.
Existence and uniqueness
Spinoza seems simply to assume that there is a highest good and that
there is only one. Furthermore, he speaks as if this must be the same
for each person. All of these claims can be challenged.
Hobbes, for example, denies that there is an ultimate end or highest
good and he denies that happiness consists in the attainment of it.
Human life itself consists in a succession of one desire after another,
which comes to an end only in death, and happiness he regards as a
progress from the satisfaction of one desire to the next.20
In TdIE Spinoza, as we have seen, describes the highest good in a
variety of ways. On one of these, it is that when possessed which will
provide supreme and continuous joy to eternity . On another it is
the attainment of a greater (or the greatest) human perfection. The
former suggests a state that excludes unsatisfied desires; the latter, in
contrast, does not.
One conception of a highest good is of that for the sake of which
all else is done and which itself is not done for the sake of anything
else. Not being done for the sake of something else is also said to be
something that the agent, at least, regards as intrinsically good . In
contrast, being done for the sake of something else is said to be extrinsically
good . The question whether there might be more than one
highest good is then settled by definition. For if achieving A and
achieving B were highest goods in this sense, they would have to be
the same.21
The question whether there is a highest good in this sense, for one
person or for all, appears to be a psychological one. Is there some
24

TREATISE ON THE EMENDATION OF THE INTELLECT

one goal that a given person aims at in everything that person does?
This seems exceedingly unlikely, but if there is, then that person
regards achievement of it as the sole intrinsic good.
If we ask you for your motivation for doing something, an answer
is typically forthcoming. If we keep asking it, it frequently becomes
unclear, quite quickly, what is to be said. For example, if I am asked
why I am writing this now, I might say that it is in order to complete
this work. But why do I want to do that? To publish it, perhaps. Why?
To heighten my reputation or to inform others and to help them see
the truth. But again, why? At this point or some other I might well
say Just because or Just because I want to or even Because I enjoy
it . The former two answers seem to indicate that I have no further
reason and even that it is a most basic desire. The latter answer suggests
that doing something because you like or enjoy doing it is itself
an ultimate explanation. If you persist in asking yet again why that
is so, you seem to be asking for a cause, not a reason.
In 3 of TdIE Spinoza remarks that the things ordinarily pursued
by people, and regarded by them as the highest good, if we judge by
their actions, are wealth, honour, and sensual pleasure. He did not,
or would not, I expect, think that every act of a person might be
motivated solely by one of these. Surely a more plausible view is that
the desire for wealth, for example, is very strong, or even dominant
in the sense that this desire is stronger than others in most cases of
conflict. For surely you may take shelter from the rain, for example,
because you think you will be uncomfortable if wet, not because, and
certainly not solely because, of your desire for money.
Life goals: A preliminary discussion
If we ask the question seriously it is hard to know where to begin.
People have different attitudes toward the construction of a life plan
and they have different degrees of interest in it. Some plan in detail
their careers, their love lives, and even the timing and number of the
children they will have. Others are content to see how things turn
out. Systematic and detailed planning is perhaps exceptional.
The question seems most pressing, perhaps, for those in transition
to adulthood, where greater economic and emotional independence
from parents is expected. It is also characteristically addressed by
those who must deal with a variety of other important life changes,
such as the loss of an important job or a loved one. But Tolstoy
25

INTRODUCTION
reminds us that it can also arise for those who have, by any ordinary
measure, achieved great success in life.22
As the question is typically presented you must decide what to do
with your life , or with the rest of it, but this form of expression
seems odd. It seems to reveal a conception of your life as an object
to be used, as if you are one thing and your life is another. However
that may be, the choice at first is between school and work. One can
of course do both, but it is not easy, and the question, In what field?
remains. If one is in college or university, for example, one must
decide on a subject. Do you want to be a lawyer, a physicist, a
teacher, a businessperson, or what? But this is to classify people, and
indeed oneself, primarily in terms of an occupation.
The life plan of many, to judge by their reports, includes getting a
good job, getting married, and perhaps having children.23 This,
apparently, is how we conceive of our lives. An ideal life is a successful
one and this most importantly includes success in an occupation
and success in love. It is thus a conception that seems to
reflect or embody a division within us between our public and
private lives.
If we enquire into the meaning of a good job , we find that it is
one that provides a great deal of money, or at least enough . Even
more ideally, the job is both lucrative and enjoyable. But it is also
important to succeed in your personal life, that is, in love, so that you
have someone with whom to share life and perhaps with whom to
have and raise children. Thus marriage, as a public mark of success
or acceptability, can also be an important element of a life plan.
Variations on this decision problem of course exist and other circumstances
or attitudes are possible. Your life may have already been
planned out for you by your parents or, in varying degrees, by a tradition
in your society. So you may be expected to follow the occupation
of your parents or to have no occupation, but instead marry
someone who does. This of course does not obviate the decision
problem, because it remains true that whether you do what is
expected is up to you.
Questions about our career and family life are enormously
important to us, of course, but Spinoza says little about them.24 He
himself is said to have had one possible love interest during his life,
but he never married.25 Although he evidently earned some money
by grinding lenses, his own primary activity was the development of
his philosophy.
26

TREATISE ON THE EMENDATION OF THE INTELLECT

That he says so little about careers is due, at least in part, perhaps,
to his view that we need very little on which to live and that the more
important question is how we live, not what our job or marital status
is. The classification he proposes in TdIE, as we noted, contrasts
those who value money, honour, or physical pleasures above all with
those who know and love God. But the more general contrast, indicated
in 9 10 of TdIE, is between those who love what is destructible
and those who love God.
Thus Spinoza can and probably does recognize that people have
different abilities and interests and that a life devoted to art, political
affairs, particular sciences, engineering, medicine, raising children,
or teaching is a worthy one. Spinoza s question concerns the
kind of person you are and has little to do with your occupation or
with whether you are to marry or have children.
The construction of an ideal
An ideal can be constructed in varying degrees of abstraction from
the real and it appears to be endemic to that construction that it
involves such abstraction. Some types of things from which we can
abstract, in the construction of a concept of an ideal life, are:
1. natural laws physical, biological, and psychological. Violations
of logical laws doom the construction to incoherence. Violations of
exceptionless laws of nature make the ideal purely imaginary.
2. general external circumstances, including political, economic,
social, religious, historical, and technological circumstances.
3. particular or personal characteristics and circumstances
including gender, height, weight, wealth, intelligence, personality,
talents, interests, beliefs, the character and circumstances of one s
parents, and so on.
Generally we keep constant our species,26 the general character of
ourselves as having needs and a desire to live well or prosper, and of
the world as containing scarcity and threats.
Since an ideal life is and must be a life within a world or environment,
we can distinguish changes in us and changes in the world.
Indeed, we must consider how changes of one sort mesh with
changes of the other.
If we focus on the question of how it is best to be or what kind of
person to be, we must face the problem of determining what the
27

INTRODUCTION
alternatives or the relevant kinds are. In TdIE, as we have seen,
Spinoza answers this by classifying people in terms of their dominant
desire (the avaricious, the sensualists, etc.). We will see that in
later works this idea seems to be retained, although it is expressed
differently. In the Ethics, for example, Spinoza s primary classification
is between those who are active and live under the guidance of
reason as opposed to those who are passive and live as prompted by
the imagination or by passive emotions. He also suggests a division
into (1) almost another species, analogous to a Nietzschean
overman , (2) ordinary people, and (3) beasts.
It is noteworthy that none of these kinds is tied to people in virtue
of their types of jobs or careers, such as businesspeople (which
cannot be identified with the greedy or money-makers ), artists, athletes,
teachers, plumbers, and so on. Here there may be mixed
motives: those of any of these types may be driven by, or may primarily
seek, honour or wealth, but they may also, for diverse reasons
and from diverse causes, just be absorbed in the activity.
If the question is, What is
and to try to achieve in our
answer. There are many. This
of our lives, or the lack of

it best to devote our time and lives to

lives? , there does not seem to be just one
raises a further question, of the unity
it.

It is difficult to conceive that the best kind of life can be divorced

or separated from a kind of life that others do, or perhaps rather
should, respect.27 But the nature of this respect depends on who the
others are and thus it has the same drawback that Spinoza, with
Aristotle, finds in the quest for honour: that you must live in accordance
with how others judge, that is, in accordance with what they
approve or disapprove. But this type of drawback is one we should
expect. For the best kind of life for an individual is surely dependent,
in part, on the human environment in which we live and this is not
completely within our own control.
More could be said here about public conceptions of who we are
to respect. We categorize people on the basis of their jobs and this
seems very deeply ingrained within our own society. But we should
treat ordinary or commonsense notions with caution. We can of
course consider various types or categories of jobs as well, for
example, skilled or unskilled , trades or professions , etc., but more
important is what kind of person someone is. The justifiable bases
of respect are tied to this, that is, they are tied to character.
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PART II
THE ETHICS

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CHAPTER 4
INTRODUCTION TO THE ETHICS
A PREVIEW OF TOPICS
The Ethics is one of the world s great books and an acknowledged
masterpiece of philosophy. It contains five parts, whose titles are as
follows:
I. Of God
II. Of the Nature and Origin of the Mind
III. Of the Origin and Nature of the Emotions
IV. Of Human Bondage, or the Power of the Emotions
V. Of the Power of the Intellect, or of Human Freedom
Part I provides a metaphysics, conceived as an account of what
sorts of things are real and how they are related to each other. It also
provides at least a partial cosmology, since it characterizes the structure
of the universe, as well as a theology or theory about God.
Part II sets out an account of what the human mind is and what
kinds of knowledge we have. It thus consists of a philosophy of
mind and a theory of knowledge, but it also contains, curiously, a
physics.
Part III is concerned with the affects , that is, our emotions and
desires, and provides a psychology of motivation or of conation .
Part IV deals primarily with ethics, understood as an enquiry into
the very practical question of how it is best to live and what is of
most value in life. In doing so, it explicitly eschews a distinctively or
specifically moral concept of obligation, or of moral right and
wrong, in opposition to most moral philosophy after Greek and
Roman times.
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THE ETHICS
Part V describes, in the first section, the practical means by which
negative emotions such as fear and anger can be weakened or eliminated.
These are, if you will, psychotherapeutic techniques. It then
turns, in the second section, to what Spinoza calls another part of
ethics . It deals with freedom of mind and the power of our intuitive
knowledge of God. In this section, Spinoza speaks of the eternity of
the intellect, that is, as some interpreters hold, of the mind without
relation to temporal existence.
Thus, as we noted earlier, Spinoza s philosophy crosses over whatever
lines now exist between philosophy, theology, and the sciences,
including, perhaps most prominently, physics, cosmology, and psychology.
COMPOSITION
The Ethics was published posthumously in 1677, but we know that
it was complete, in a form acceptable to Spinoza, in the late summer
or early autumn of 1675. For in Ep 68, which is dated September
1675, he relates that when he received Oldenburg s letter of 22 July,
he was about to publish it. He delayed doing this, however, for a
rumour was spreading that he was planning to publish a book
that tries to show there is no God. In addition, complaints to the
Prince of Orange and to the magistrates had already been made.
Theologians and Cartesians, he says, were plotting against him, so
he waited and was uncertain what to do.
We also know, from another
had at least begun to cast
form in 1661. If we regard
proper,2 we can conjecture
and
on, for at least 14 years.

letter to Oldenburg,1 that Spinoza

his views on God and substance into geometrical
this as the start of the Ethics
that he worked on the Ethics itself, off

Spinoza worked on the ideas that it expresses, however, for virtually

all of his adult life. For the Ethics is a revised and reworked
expression of an earlier work, the Short Treatise on God, Man, and
his Well-Being. This title, in fact, provides a summary of the main
topics of the Ethics.
READING THE ETHICS: TWO OBSTACLES
Two features of the work make it especially difficult for modern
readers:
32

INTRODUCTION TO THE ETHICS

1.
it is written in the vocabulary of late medieval scholasticism,
and
2.
it is set out in the geometric order .
The first is a problem for us because this vocabulary is foreign to
nearly everyone now alive.
The geometric order is the order found in Euclid s Elements.It
begins with definitions and axioms and then proceeds to establish
theorems on their basis. This is a problem, in part, because it has no
teleological order, that is, it seems to have no direction. It simply proceeds,
in theory at least, to churn out theorems without indicating
the goal of the author and without indicating which theorems are
themselves important, as opposed to those that are important only
as a means to others.
The first obstacle
The first of these obstacles is a type of problem that the Ethics
shares with most works in philosophy. Problems arising from vocabulary
are found in nearly all philosophical writings, from the first
written philosophical fragments of the ancient Greeks, through
Plato, Aristotle, and their successors to modern times. They are
more severe, however, in some cases than in others. Kant and
Heidegger, for example, depart from plain language much more
than do Locke or Searle. But learning the meaning of technical
terms is an essential part of the process of coming to understand a
philosophy. The same is true in nearly every field, from the arts and
law to the sciences.
In the case of Spinoza, we are actually at some advantage here,
because he does provide explicit definitions and he makes a great
effort, at least, to explain his terms and to use them consistently. This
is required, after all, by the geometric method.
On the other hand, it is endemic to this method that the primitive
terms remain undefined. In addition, Spinoza sometimes adopts traditional
terminology, but uses it in ways that differ radically from its
typical seventeenth-century use. This is true, for example, of many
of the most important terms, such as substance , mode , and even
mind .
It is like reading Kant for the first time. Once is not enough. And
as with Kant, so with Spinoza: it is enormously helpful to have an